Cunning Scheme Of Love
by ChloeIsVictorious
Summary: It was 20 years since Beth had left London's countryside and settled down in Cambridge. She had gained so much in London, and for what? To lose it all? Obviously 20 years is a long time, and she was young when she left but that did not stop her from constantly missing the one person who she loved the most. Sherlock Holmes. Now Beth is back and her life will never be the same.
1. New Scotland Yard

_So this is only a short chapter to start off the story._

_Happy reading :3_

* * *

**New Scotland Yard**

20 years. 20 years since Beth had left London's countryside and settled down in Cambridge. She had gained so much in London, and for what? To lose it all? Obviously 20 years is a long time, and she was young when she left (8 years old in fact), but that did not stop her from constantly missing the one person who she loved the most.

Sherlock.

See, Sherlock and Beth became friends through their parents friendship and they were almost inseparable. Beth saw Sherlock like a big brother who was there to protect her and to always be there for her. But not only that, Beth was also there for Sherlock when he was bullied at school for being... odd. She knew that Sherlock was like no other kid in school, he was different. Different was a good thing in Beth's eyes. Different means individuality, and Sherlock was certainly an individual.

Leaving London was heart breaking for Beth. Not only was she leaving her home, but she was also leaving Sherlock. She knew it would upset him, to what extent though? She had no idea. But she hoped that one day, he would forgive her. Hopefully, they could meet again.

Now that Beth was 28, and she had passed all her degrees in programming and computer science, she thought it was only right to go back to the big city and get a well paid job in New Scotland Yard within the I.T specialists department. Finally being in her previous home town, she felt it was a blast from the past. Everywhere seemed the same yet.. different. Certain things were changing like certain shops were replaced by other shops and the signs were certainly different. Yet it felt the same, it was the same place. Many memories were made in London. Memories she could not forget and she wanted to keep a firm hold of.

However, the memories that she relived soon subsided when she was sat in the waiting room of New Scotland Yard, awaiting the news of her future career. She had given in her CV, had an interview and had a test. Currently she was waiting for the results, and to see whether she had got the job or was to be sent away.

"Ms Mcneill? Would you like to follow me?"

Nervousness hit Beth as she heard the woman's voice absorb into her ears. She stood up shakily, her whole body shook but she tried her best to control the nervousness and to keep herself calm. The woman casually led her towards the managers office as though she does it everyday. As though New Scotland Yard got many people wanting jobs there. Once the door opened and she was invited inside by a droopy faced old man, the shaking became uncontrollable.

**The next day**

Beth sat at her new desk, her macbook rested upon it unopened. She took a deep breath, treasuring the moment as she had a job that was worth the time and effort she went through to get where she was now. Although the first day was pretty boring, she had to be shown some of the basic jobs that usually happened in her line of work by a woman whose voice was so draining that it made her want to deafen herself. All day she had to listen to the same flat toned voice, she was relieved when she was entitled to her lunch break or when she got the chance to chat to some more cheerful folk.

Through the rising conversations, she got to meet many lovely people who worked alongside her. Most of them began to talk of someone who came in regularly because of a person named Detective Inspector Lestrade. They spoke of his strange and overwhelmingly amazing mind. To Beth, it reminded her very much of Sherlock as soon as they said about their amazing mind. Sherlock had an amazing mind, in fact, he used to blow her away by the things he used to come out with. He used to deduce exactly what she was hiding if she was ever to keep a secret or keep something from Sherlock. It was truly fascinating.

"What is his name again Will?"

"Ah, he has a strange name..."

"It's Sherlock Holmes, he was mentioned in the newspaper last week," Immediately by the mention of Sherlock's name, Beth froze.

"S-Sherlock works here?" Beth asked, her voice was fast with excitement and her eyes were unusually large.

"No, he doesn't. He comes in when he is needed by the detectives who work in New Scotland Yard. We've heard that Sherlock calls himself a Consulting Detective. He is truly the best detective anyone has seen!" Everyone began to converse with each other about Sherlock, the conversations were like heaven to Beth's ears. Her head fell into her hands and a small smile slowly crept onto her face. He has gone far, and made a good impression of himself, she was happy for him and hopefully they would meet soon. Finally then, she could have her childhood friend close to her side once again.


	2. The Investigation Of The Voice

_So second part guys! Enjoy!_

_:3_

* * *

**The Investigation Of The Voice**

Working for a week at New Scotland Yard was found to be interesting, but Beth felt it lacked the excitement that she thought she would encounter. There were no crime investigation jobs or exciting new assignments she was given. It was nothing but taking calls, typing the information into the computer, locating callers destinations and faxing the information to the investigators. She wasn't going to complain because in the end, a job was a job and as long as she had her wages, she wasn't bothered what she had to do.

On the Friday morning during her first week, she had heard rumours that someone had attempted to steal the crown jewels, break into the vault at the Bank of England and break out inmates at the Pentonville Prison. A lot of commotion occurred through out Scotland Yard, many colleagues saying that it was a terrorist attack. But Beth knew that not even terrorists are capable of breaking into places like a vault.

Detective Sergeant Sally Donovan, a woman Beth had grown to dislike during her time at her new job, rushed into the office of the many IT Technicians, asking for someone to come and investigate the security footage of the recent crime that had occurred. Immediately Beth stood up nervously but with determination to prove herself. Her boss nodded.

"Fine, you can go Beth. Show us what you can do,"

"Thank you sir," Quickly, she grabbed her macbook and her coat, then walked over to Sally Donovan who then led her out the building to the police car. On the way to the Tower Of London, Beth couldn't quite get over that she was within a police car as an investigator, NOT as someone who had been arrested. Quite frankly, Beth was enjoying the experience. As they drove by London's strenuous city life, she couldn't help but notice how no one seemed to be bothered that police cars were wondering around. When she lived in Cambridge, many people stared at police cars wondering who was inside or where they were off to.

The purring of the car stopped as Donovan turned the car engine off. The entrance to the Tower Of London was closed off with crime scene investigation tape to stop tourists from entering. Police Officers were outside either writing notes in investigation forms or just simply guarding the area. One Police man lifted the tape to allow both women into the investigation site, and Beth was led inside. Inside was no longer bustling with tourists, but now bustling with detectives and police officers. She was led further in, where she saw a man with grey hair standing outside the security room, waiting.

"Ah you must be the new IT technician, I don't believe I've met you yet. I am Detective Inspector Lestrade," the Detective held out his hand towards Beth who, with no hesitation, took it and shook his hand.

"It's a pleasure to be given the opportunity to show my boss what I can do," She smiled and walked into the security room. Once inside, she saw the screens that surveyed all the different locations within the tourist attraction. On one of the screens was the crown jewels which had been broken into. Glass shards were all over the floor around the crown jewels and the crown itself was no longer on the chair.

"All we ask of you is to see if you can figure out how he shut down all the security cameras," with a nod, Beth began looking into the data of the security camera. Lestrade stood behind, watching her work her magic as she swiftly looked through the data, but eventually broke the silence as he asked her if she wanted a hot drink. With a nod and a thank you from Beth, he went into the kitchen, leaving Beth alone to carry on with her work.

A minute or two had gone, and Lestrade had not yet returned. But the door opened and two men walked in. Beth looked at the men who came into the room and immediately recognised the curly dark brown hair and the sky blue eyes that she had grown up with. Her own eyes widened and she looked at the screens of the cameras. Frozen, she hardly noticed that the curly haired man had spoken to her.

"Hello? Can you please show me the footage before Moriarty broke into the glass box?"

"Huh? Oh yeah," she was dumbstruck. She would have never of thought that she would meet him at a crime investigation scene. Out of all places. She re-winded the footage to the moment when the criminal had walked into the room of the crown jewels, and even though she was seemingly looking at the screen, she wasn't actually paying attention as she could only think of Sherlock. Many thoughts ran through her head like:

_He is here! We can be friends again!_

_But what if he is mad at me? I mean I did leave a day before his birthday..._

_I hadn't heard from him in 20 years._

_Oh god he's going to hate me!_

"Zoom in onto his phone," Sherlock demanded, his voice was so casual but held a very dominant tone that made her realise that he was not one to be messing around with. She did as he said but when she had finally zoomed in, she saw that the image was pixelated and that it was impossible to make out what was upon the phone screen.

"If only we could see what was on the phone," the other man sighed, followed by Sherlock's grunt. Beth then had a brilliant idea that she thought would no doubt impress her boss. Without turning her head so that Sherlock could see her, she spoke.

"How about I enhance it on my laptop?"

"Can you do that?" asked Sherlock's partner, but without replying, she began to hook up her macbook to the security computer. Once it was connected, she took the data from the security computer and used her IT intelligence to enhance the image to make the phone clear enough to see what was upon it. All the while, Sherlock was staring at Beth, curious as to why he recognised her. Her voice seemed very familiar to him, but he couldn't put a finger on it.

"Here," she had finally finished enhancing the image, and the image was almost as sharp as the eye could see. Sherlock walked over to the laptop and knelt down to look at the image. He saw that the phone had a crown upon it, and with a frown he sighed.

"A crown, interesting," he looked towards Beth, hoping to notice who she was, but even when he looked at her face, he still couldn't place it. Beth tried not to make eye contact with Sherlock so she looked at the image on her macbook then began making notes on what she has discovered. She could feel Sherlock's stare which made her extremely uncomfortable. In a way, she wanted him to recognise her, but she was afraid of his reaction.

"Sherlock, are we done?" the man asked Sherlock, who in response, stood up and nodded. The man thanked Beth but Sherlock left without saying a word. Soon as she was free from his stare, she sighed in utter relief. She printed out the enhanced image of the phone before disconnecting the macbook from the computer. Lestrade came back and handed her the cup of coffee which she took a small sip of.

"So what have we found?" he said. Beth pointed to the printed image that remained on the printer. Lestrade walked over and looked at the image, his eyebrows furrowed in the process. Clearly he did not make any sense of it but Sherlock certainly did.

"This is certainly interesting, but I don't see how this would shut down the security cameras. We would have to see what Sherlock thinks of it,"

"I'm sure he would figure it out,"

Finally, when all the paper work and the investigation was done, Beth was allowed to go home. She was glad that she had been allowed to be the one to investigate the crime scene footage, due to being able to show what she is capable of and, of course, because she got to meet Sherlock after so long. Yet she felt that meeting him was going to be a bad thing, lucky for her, he didn't recognise her.

* * *

_Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you do too Beth ;) finally got to meet Sherlock and John!_


	3. Trial Of The Consulting Criminal

**_Hi so Chapter 3, I spent a lot of time thinking about this chapter but not so much time to write it so I do apologise, please forgive me. Don't kill me! _**

* * *

**Trial Of The Consulting Criminal**

The weekend had past eventlessly, Beth had spent most of her time looking over the video of the criminal committing his crime. She observed the way he danced around the room before smashing the glass into hundreds of shards and thinking just how ingenious his plan was. He was very precise and well equipped, seeming as he had a diamond with him to smash the glass. But what intrigued her more was the little message he left. Get Sherlock. And who was the message to? Many more questions ran through Beth's mind. Also she was a little concerned for what this might mean, concerned for Sherlock's safety. However, she did not know if Sherlock had encountered this man before and if this was his first offence or not. So eventually she closed her macbooks screen down and got up from her sofa.

It was coming on late in the afternoon when she had received a text on her phone.

_Hello, this is Lestrade. Could you come in a little earlier tomorrow? I need to have a word with you in my office._

_-GL_

Beth froze a little. She always got nervous when messages like that were sent to her. She never knew if she was in trouble or not.

_Sure. I'll be there at 7:30._

_-BM_

By morning, Beth was up and ready, dressed in a green floaty top and black trousers. She was nervous and unsure of what to expect from Lestrade. She hoped she had not lost her job over what she had done on that Friday. In fact she was positive that it wasn't something that would cost her her job.

She had caught a cab to New Scotland Yard and immediately headed over to Lestrade's office. Lightly she knocked on the door and entered, seeing that Lestrade had a smile on his face and nothing looked job threatening.

"Ah Beth, please sit," he gestured to the chair in front of his desk. Calmly, and feeling slightly relieved that things were looking more promising and Lestrade himself seemed quite cheerful, Beth sat on the chair and smiled at the detective inspector.

"I would like to ask you if you would like to accompany me and some others to the court session of Jim Moriarty? All I would want you to do is to see if he gives any hints of how he got past security of the 3 locations," Beth, without any hesitation, nodded at his request. She was already intrigued by the man she saw in the video. To see him in real life was extremely tempting for her. Also to actually investigate the way he behaves and the things he says to get hints was something she was looking forward to.

"Oh and before you go, let me just tell you that Jim Moriarty is very intimidating and slightly..."

The door swung open behind her, her head snapped around to see that Sherlock and his partner had walked into Lestrade's office. Sherlock had on a Belstaff coat and a blue scarf, underneath he had a suit on. Then she looked over to his partner who seemed to stand in a very militarily way, wearing jeans and a black jacket.

"You texted me?" Sherlock's baritone voice questioned.

"Yes, the lawyer wants you to speak during the court case, you know, answer a few questions about how you met him and stuff?" Sherlock gave a slight grunt, then shortly after gave Lestrade a slight nod. He was about to walk out the room until his eyes met Beth's.

**2 days before**

His fingers were pressed against his lips as he laid on the sofa, wondering the corridors of his mindpalace. Every corner he took, his eyes would meet with the girl black fringed hair and blue eyes, from the Tower Of London. Sure, he recognised her, but she wasn't relevant, so he brushed her away.

Half an hour had passed and still the girl was following him, appearing in every corridor he turned into. So finally he had given up and stopped in front of her. She walked into a room that led to more corridors, and Sherlock followed her. She began to run, and so he chased after her bursting into a room that was blinding with light. Sherlock covered his eyes, but as the doors closed behind him, the room darkened and revealed the room from his childhood. Little Sherlock walked around the room, looking for something. He looked behind one sofa, the curtains, then smirked and began to creep up to the other sofa across to the other side of the room. Sherlock followed his little self and as his head slowly looked down the back of the sofa, a girlish scream appeared. A girl with bright blonde hair jumped out from the back of the sofa and ran around the room.

"Beth calm down now," said a low pitched toned voice that came from a man in the other room.

Sherlock's eyes widened. He suddenly came out of his mind palace and he now entered 221B with John sat in his chair reading the newspaper.

"Beth," Sherlock whispered as he stared up at the ceiling. All memories came flooding back. Memories that he had classed as junk a long while ago. However he could never fully delete them from his memory. Eventhough he would not admit it, those memories were precious to him.

"What was that Sherlock?" John asked as he heard Sherlock mumble.

"Nothing,"

* * *

"John, Lestrade, please excuse me and Beth for a second," Sherlock said sharply as he grabbed Beth's arm tightly and pulled her from the chair, out of the room. Beth gasped at the sudden action and the force he used upon her. Also she was surprised that he recognised her finally. She couldn't look Sherlock in the eyes, so she kept her head down.

"So I see you're back,"

"Er, yeah, got a new job here," Shifting from one foot to the other, Beth responded with her quiet voice. Her hand began to rub her arm which Sherlock noticed and knew that she was nervous.

"Why are you back? Really?"

When Beth didn't respond back, Sherlock sighed and put his hands on her shoulders, shaking her slightly.

"Beth! Why are you back? After all this time and you choose to come now!" Beth was taken back by his reaction. She had never seen Sherlock show such emotion of anger towards her before, not even when he was young. She froze in thought of why exactly she was here. Not because she wanted this job, but the real reason. And it finally dawned on her.

"I... I missed you, I missed London, my old life. If I could turn back time I would. But my dad got a job in Cambridge and we just had to drop everything and go... I'm sorry Sherlock, I wish I could have said goodbye," her eyes finally lifted to his, and she saw the pain that were in his eyes. His arms fell to his side and he looked away.

"Yes well, you can't go back in time so, I guess your wish is pointless..."

"Sherlock, I've just apologi..."

"You don't realise what happened while you were gone. And I'm not wasting my breath explaining," Sherlock stormed into Lestrade's office, and then came back out with John following his tail.

"Sherlock. Wait," But Sherlock ignored Beth and was out of the room before she could say anymore.

Sherlock stopped as soon as he was out of the room and closed his eyes tight. His emotions were getting the better of him and he knew what he just said to Beth was going to play on his mind for a long time. He wasn't going to kid himself, he had missed Beth and when he realised that she was his childhood friend, he felt a spark light within him. But he was angry with her for leaving him, and he immediately chose that to express his feelings. To express the pain that he had experienced. His eyes shot open and met with John's confused face.

"Are you OK Sherlock?" Sherlock's immediate reaction was to put on a plain face and continue walking, but inside, he was not OK.

**1 week later**

Beth took her seat in the court room that held many people for the major crime that this man 'James Moriarty' had committed. She looked around in amazement at the room, feeling intimidated by it's size and it's purpose. By then she had only just noticed that the man in front of her was Sherlock's partner, so she felt inclined to introduce herself after the episode she had with Sherlock about a week ago. Softly, she tapped his shoulder to gain his attention. As soon as he turned around, he realised who it was and gave her a smile.

"Beth right?"

"Uh huh, Beth Mcneill, Sherlock's childhood friend," She reached out her hand towards his which he took almost immediately.

"Pleasure to meet you, I'm John Watson, Sherlock's flatmate,"

Beth and John sat talking as they waited for the trial to begin, they spoke about how Sherlock and John and how Sherlock and Beth met and basically, everything to do with either themselves or Sherlock. But as soon as someone began to ask for the court room to be silent, their attention focused on the arrival of the judge. She began to search the room for Sherlock himself, finding him near the front in the witness area.

Then thats when he arrived. A man with dark hair slick back from his face, and eyes that held the darkest abyss she had ever seen. He wore a light grey suit that fit his figure perfectly. He was purely captivating in her eyes. She couldn't take her eyes off of him. His eyes sucked her in and she saw every dark thought that ran through his mind.

She felt eyes burn through her skin as the feeling of being watched crept over her. She turned her gaze towards the criminal and her skin turned red when she saw that he was watching her. Watching her every move. His eyes manipulated her and eventually she began to stare back. Their gaze went on for the majority of the trial until finally Moriarty was found not guilty.

"Huh, not guilty... wait what? Not guilty?" Beth's mesmerizing wore off and finally she came down to reality.

"How the hell did he get not guilty without any witnesses?" John shrugged and Beth watched as the dark eyed man got took away from the court room.


End file.
